12:20pm | Long Beach State stormed out to a 6-0 lead after four innings in support last Friday night’s starter Andrew Gagnon, and the Dirtbags held on to beat No. 12 Stanford 6-3 in Palo Alto.

Gagnon struck out eight batters and allowed two runs over six innings.

Long Beach State got on the board right away in the top of the first inning, as Ino Patron drew a two-out walk and scored when Mike Marjama punched a triple down the right field line to take a 1-0 lead.

The Dirtbags then extended their lead with a big inning in the third. Jeff McNeil led off the inning with a base hit, and Brennan Metzger was hit for the 33rd time in his career, tying him with Bobby Crosby in the LBSU record books for fourth place to put a pair of runners on. After Matt Hibbert pushed over both runners with a sacrifice, Patron drove a two-run single up the middle. Another hit by Matt Duffy put Patron in scoring position, and he came home to score on a single by Jonathan Kim, making the score 4-0.

Back-to-back singles by Michael Hill and Kirk Singer got the Dirtbags going once more in the fourth inning, and both players scored in the inning to provide Long Beach State with a 6-0 lead.

That was more than enough for Gagnon, who had another outstanding start for Long Beach State, setting a season high with eight strikeouts while allowing just six hits. His major trouble came in the fifth inning, when a walk combined with a hit batter put two runners on, and singles from Stephen Piscotty and Eric Smith scored two runs for the Cardinals.

Gagnon got out of the inning, and pitched a hitless sixth to get the game into the hands of the bullpen, which combined for three innings of relief between Kyle Friedrichs, Jon Maciel and Eddie Magallon.

Magallon entered in the ninth and retired the side in order to record his fifth save of the season, while Gagnon improved to 3-3 with the win. Patron finished the day with two runs scored and two RBI while going 1-for-3.

Long Beach State and Stanford faced off twice more over the weekend. Coverage of those games is forthcoming.